Newsletters

XML Feeds

NCAT strives to make our information available to everyone who needs it. If you are a limited-access or low-income farmer and find that one of our publications is just not in your budget, please call 800-346-9140.

Over the last 12,000 years, agriculture has enriched our lives. It has brought us our favorite foods, beverages, and culinary traditions. It has allowed for fibers, textiles and clothes. It has brought us into domesticated relations with animals. It has fed the inventions of tools, the freedom to specialize, the pride of tending the earth, and the art and culture of civilization.

Agriculture created surplus. Surplus allowed for some individuals to spend time doing specialized activities that gave birth to industry, art, and culture.

The sedentary life made possible by agriculture created more complex social relationships that gave birth to more complicated societies.

The Power of Trade

Archaeological sites offer proof of trade.

Humans began to desire special tools, fibers, or foods. Surplus allowed for trade within one society or between neighboring societies. This desire to trade motivated the valuing of land and increase in production.

Control of land and agricultural surplus becomes key to wealth and power.

Humans begin to manipulate nature on a larger scale without concern for consequences.

Genesis I:26: 'then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."'

History of Agriculture in the United States of America

Colonization, Land Use, and Settlement

First residents are ancestors of Native Americans. Their presence dates back 14,000 years. They lived as hunters and gatherers, and practiced subsistence agriculture.

Most settlers were not farmers and relied on assistance from native peoples.

Colonial power inflicted genocide on native peoples and appropriated over 1 billion acres.

1775 - 1855, 73.5 million acres given away to men who enlisted and served in the army and navy. In fact, free land was their incentive.

Generally land is sold to timber companies, railroads, speculators, developers, and ranchers.

1840's - After pressure to liberalize the distribution of public lands, reformers attempted to pass homestead legislation: made connection between industry/urban development and diminishing self-sufficiency and demanded land be given to urban residents for free as a means alleviating bad economic conditions of urban factory workers. This didn't pass, eastern industrialists opposed it because it would have deprived them of a work force, western landowners opposed it because they felt it would depreciate land values, and southern planters opposed it thinking it would limit the potential expanse of slave-based agriculture.

Abundant and cheep land, scarce labor, no markets made pioneer farmers invest mainly in the short term: building infrastructure and clearing forest rather than soil or food/animal production. Improved land was more marketable than food.

Deforestation and Desertification

Forests covered half of U.S. land, grasses covered 4/10ths.

First century began with clearing of over 300 million acres of forest and plowing up over 300 million acres of native grassland.

Human Exploitation/Labor

Indentured servants

Mostly European immigrants working in exchange for their passage from Europe.

Average contract was 5-7 years. Many were not fulfilled.

Slavery

4,000,000 slaves by late 1800's.

One slave per 10 acres.

Regional Specialization

Corn - Midwest: Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, and Indiana - leading corn producing states in the union. Grown for: the family, feed for workers (often transported to the South), and feed for livestock. Some used for whiskey.

Pork, 1860 - hogs used to run wild. Now fenced and fattened on corn, hogs gave cities like Cincinnati the name "Porkopolis." A new industry was born: growing corn, feeding it to hogs, and then slaughtering and processing for shipping.

Beef, 1850's - Completion of the railroad brought an end to cattle drives, which birthed a new industry of farmers (in Ohio first) fattening their cows off corn.

Barbed wire invented in 1880.

South - cotton

Deep South, coastal area - rice

Northeast - dairy, vegetable, horse - more local demand because of urban population

Farm Prosperity, 1885-1930

Frontier settlement era is over.

Dryland farming is growing in Great Plains.

Increased immigration increases farm output.

Government funded R & D, credit, cooperative marketing

The New Deal

The Agricultural Adjustment Act

The first farm bill

Paid farmers to reduce crop area

Decreased surplus

Raised prices

Deemed illegal but lead to…

The Agricultural Readjustment Act

Price supports for major storage crops to maintain sufficient supply

Beginning of farm subsidies: Corn, wheat, rice, cotton, and tobacco

World War II

High demand & high prices for food

Food rationing

Off-farm employment

Beginning of Commercial Agriculture After WW II: 1950-1970

In one generation, the workforce involved in agriculture declined by half

The value of agricultural products increased by 40%

Modern era of convenience

G.I. Bill sent people to universities instead of learning through generational knowledge transfer

Technological Advancements

Electrification

Refrigeration

Advances in processing, packaging

Development of the highway system

Price of store-bought goods decreased

Availability of goods increased

Mechanization

By 1925, tractors were becoming a profitable investment

Free up 25% of land under cultivation

By 1950, almost completely replaced horses and mules

Chemical

The TVA started selling NH4 to farmers in 1943 as fertilizer

Insecticides, fungicides, herbicides

Rapid growth of monocultures, no till, labor

"Green Revolution"

Technology transfer initiatives to Developing Nations, 1943-1970

High-yielding varieties

Irrigation infrastructure

Hybridized seed

Synthetic fertilizers and pesticides

Biological

Hybridized Corn- most important plant breeding innovation in the U.S.

Decrease in genetic diversity, increase in yields

Wheat, rice, animals

Genetically-modified organisms

Livestock Industry

Without electricity, antibiotics and hormones, confinement operations would not be possible

Became easier and cheaper to buy meat, eggs and milk than to raise animals

100-fold in labor productivity

Government and Policy

"The Farm Problem"

Incentives for home production lessened, no more sugar rations, homegrown meat, Victory Gardens

Now, farms were consistently producing more crops than they could sell

Instead of controlling production, had to manage surplus

"Get Big or Get Out"

In 1971, Nixon appointed Earl Butz as Secretary of Agriculture

Encouraged commodity production from fencerow to fencerow

Rise of agribusiness

Onset of Crisis and an Un-level Playing Field

2005 Top Crop Payments:

Corn

Cotton

Soy

Wheat

Tobacco

Dairy

Consolidation in seed, livestock and organic industries

Farm Population

1900: 6 million farms, 38% of work force

1930: 7 million farms, 21% of work force

1950: 5 million farms, 12% of work force

1970: 3 million farms, 4.5% of work force

2007: 2 million farms, 1-2% of work force

Average age of farmers = 57

Human Health

1950: 10% of income on health care, 22% on food

2007: 10% of income on food, 22% on health care

Globally, 1 billion adults are overweight

Type II Diabetes

Environmental Impact

Soil erosion

Climate change

Dead Zone

Air and water emissions from industrial agriculture

Energy Use

Grain-fed beef: requires 35 calories for every one produced

Agriculture contributes 12-15% of annual GHG emissions

Around the World

Farmers in India & Africa are still fighting for debt relief incurred from the Green Revolution

India reports 16,000 farmer suicides due to devastation

Climate change, deforestation, desertification

Here We Are Now

Historical Case Studies

Irish Potato Famine and Monoculture

Haiti and Deforestation and Soil Erosion

The Dust Bowl and the Destruction of Native Plant Ecology

Australia and Salinization

Cuba and Self-Sufficiency

Ideology and Practices of the Present and Future

Alternatives to industrial agriculture and factory farming.

Preserving small and family farms.

Remediation of the economic, social, and environmental consequences of Agriculture's history.

Assessment/Review

Consider the context in which you are choosing to become a farmer.

How has the historical information learned affected your interest in small and sustainable farming operations?

Discuss relevance of historical examples of poor agricultural practices and how to apply lessons learned.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service - ATTRA - is developed and managed by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT).
Visit the NCAT website for more information on our other sustainable agriculture and energy projects.